Siemens says failure to publish company history not a cover-up

March 20, 2017

FRANKFURT, Mar 20: Germany industrial and engineering giant Siemens said a decision not to publish a manuscript about the company’s recent history, including some findings about a corruption scandal, did not amount to a cover-up.

German weekly Der Spiegel said Siemens had failed to honour an agreement with two historians to publish a book manuscript which has been completed since 2014.

Siemens was involved in one of Germany’s biggest corporate bribery scandals. The company was exposed as having run an elaborate bribery network, paying more than US$1 billion in kickbacks to win contracts worldwide.

In a written statement, Siemens emphatically denied allegations raised in Der Spiegel about potentially withholding relevant information about the bribery scandal.

“The company comprehensively researched the corruption affair 10 years ago, giving authorities and internal investigators full access to relevant information,” it said, adding that privacy and corporate confidentiality considerations prohibited a more full disclosure of transcripts from management and supervisory board minutes.